Sunday, April 29, 2012

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Thank you to everyone who linked up last week! The most clicked link was:

These fun loom flowers linked up by The Crafter's Apprentice. Pretty colors! It would be so fun to add these to gift wrapping!

Alright party people...are you ready for this week's link up???

Let’s get to it! I'll be featuring
my favorite links on the Facebook Fan Page throughout the week! Are you a
fan? I also try to Pin my favorites to Pinterest. The top clicked link will be featured during next weeks party!

{Just a few party guidelines}

Link up your crafts, recipes, home decor....anything that has been made by you! {Multiple links to different posts are fine}

Link back here by grabbing
the super cute button on my sidebar and posting it either in your post
or somewhere on your blog to let others know you've joined the party!

If you see something you like, click on it and go leave them a comment. Everyone loves comments!

Lastly, feel free to help me
spread the word about Made with Love Monday! Follow me on Twitter {just
click on my little Twitter button} and tweet about the party. Make sure to @ tag me so I can RT you!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Happy Friday friends! Pretty excited for a low key weekend with not a lot going on. I see the Kindle in my future :)

I'm linking up with Jeannett from Life Rearranged to share snippets of everyday life as told by my phone. Come follow me on Instagram! I'm sewchatty.

Snap recap in condensed form. Great friends, great food, inspiring sessions. Loved every minute! Can't wait for next year!

Love my new tiny little bow band from Just Lovely Things. Didn't want to smoosh my bangs so I'm rocking it underneath. I know, I'm such a trend setter. Or totally lame?! You decide.

The catching up on sleep and random clouds and rain had me consuming large amounts of coffee this week. I'm normally a one cup a day first thing in the morning kind of gal, but this was at like 4 in the afternoon.

Top-stitching is my favorite. I'm working on some little pleated pouches for craft weekend swag.

I have a new sponsor that wanted me to create a new button for her. Making bloggy buttons is rather fun!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Hey there! I hope you are all having a great week! Today I'm sharing a top that I made for Snap!

This was a really fun and easy pattern to sew! I always hit up JoAnn's when they are having their pattern sale and I scored this pattern at the last one for $1. I chose a vintage inspired eyelet with little orange flowers that I ordered at fabric.com.

I shared an Instagram of the pattern before I sewed it up which was great because a friend that has already made this top told me to gather the top instead of pleat it which worked out great! It came together really quickly! Start to finish was about 3 hours. It's a little loose, so it really needs to be belted.

Here is how I wore it!

A brown leather belt would have been fabulous! Anyhow, I loved making this tunic and I can't wait to make more! I'm going to try it in a knit next time. I think it would drape nicely.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sew Chatty offers very affordable ad space for you to feature your blog
or handmade business! I am currently offering 2 different packages for
you to chose from...

Sidebar Sponsorship

Monthly rate of only $15 per month.
Your button will be featured on my sidebar for the entire month &
you'll also get several social media mentions {via FB, Twitter, G+, and
Pinterest} promoting your business.

Deluxe 3 month advertising package for $30.
Your button will be featured on my sidebar for the duration of the 3
month sponsorship & you'll also get social media mentions {via FB,
Twitter, G+, and Pinterest} promoting your business.

{Let me know when you have something special going on that you want promoted!!! I'm good at Twitter}

REVIEWS AND GIVEAWAYS

If you'd like me to review an item for you, I can do that as long
as it is an item that I believe my readers will love, fits with my overall style, and isn't too similar to what I
do. Just shoot me an email so we can work out the details.

Giveaways will run for 3-7 days and will be promoted on the blog,
Twitter, and Facebook. Only one giveaway will run at a time so as to
not compete with other Sew Chatty advertisers. Please contact me about
giveaway pricing.

Some important info for you to know...

I blog at least 4 times a week.

My highest traffic day is Monday due to people linking up to Made With Love.

I am averaging 12,000 page-views per month according to Google Analytics.

I currently have 1430+ subscribers via Feedburner/RSS.

1250+ followers via Google Friend Connect

970+ "likes" on Facebook

1130+ followers on Twitter

Klout score is 53

And I am happy to say that these numbers are growing everyday! I am
confident that a sponsorship with Sew Chatty will generate some good
traffic to your shop/blog!

Sound good?...email me at sewchatty.eo @ gmail dot com so we can further discuss the details and any questions you may have! I look forward to working with you!

P.S. Contact me today for a 15% discount on my deluxe package! That's 3 months of advertising for only $25!

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm linking up with Lindsey for What I Wore Wednesday today. Lindsey hosts a great link up as a challenge to get us out of the mommy clothes and put a little effort into ourselves.

Here is one of the outfits that came with me to Snap. I was kind of bad at taking outfit pics because we were so busy!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I'm back and catching up on sleep from an AMAZING weekend at Snap Conference. It was held near Salt Lake City in Utah at Thanksgiving Point. Such a great venue for an event like this. Everything was all together and it was just beautiful!

I got to catch up with friends I'd met last year and made lots of new friends too!

My good friend, roommate and AMAZING jewelry designer Amy Cornwell.We were all gifted a beautiful necklace from her with the theme of the conference. I'll show you a pic later this week. I love it.

My new friend Kelsey from Poofy Cheeks. I get some of my packaging supplies from her! I was so excited to meet her in real life! Kelsey donated to the swag bags too! I'm earing one of her awesome hair ties today!

Tara, Becca, and I right before the dance party! Love these ladies.

The conference was fabulous. Just what I needed to regroup and refocus my goals for my blog and shop. The sessions were great! I attended Blogging Basics, Happy Chaos (balancing the business with home), and a few others like Blogging For Good. Amy wrote a great recap on that session.

The class was lead by Ethan Austin, Jeannett Gibson, and Meg Duerkson. It was by far the best session I attended. I want to use my tiny little blog to do good for others as often as I can. The Legal Matters class was also great and very informative. The SEO class just hurt my brain. Can someone please write SEO for dummies?

When we weren't in classes, we were chatting and eating, and staying up way too late! I'll give you more of a behind the scenes tour of Snap on Friday when I share my Instagrams with you so stay tuned for that!

Let’s get to it! I'll be featuring
my favorite links on the Facebook Fan Page throughout the week! Are you a
fan? I also try to Pin my favorites to Pinterest. The top clicked link will be featured during next weeks party!

{Just a few party guidelines}

Link up your crafts, recipes, home decor....anything that has been made by you! {Multiple links to different posts are fine}

Link back here by grabbing
the super cute button on my sidebar and posting it either in your post
or somewhere on your blog to let others know you've joined the party!

If you see something you like, click on it and go leave them a comment. Everyone loves comments!

Lastly, feel free to help me
spread the word about Made with Love Monday! Follow me on Twitter {just
click on my little Twitter button} and tweet about the party. Make sure to @ tag me so I can RT you!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Hi friends and happy Friday to you! I'm linking up with Jeannett today for InstaFriday!

Here is a fun little collection of my favorite Instagrams from this week! Do you use Instagram? I'm "sewchatty" if you want to follow along with me!

I bought all the colors of the Target washi tape. I'm in love with it. It dressed up my bubble mailers and made this baby shower gift look super cute! FYI, my Target had it by the post it notes in the office supply section. You're welcome.

Our backyard is getting gutted. We're having a do-over and I'm pretty pumped about it. I'm pinning backyard ideas like a crazy person! I can't wait until it's pretty! Um...we have a long way to go.

This little gem was uncovered during the demo. We've lived in our house for 8 years and never knew it was living amongst the trees back there. Yes, it was that bad. So what should I do with it? I'm thinking bright yellow makeover?

While my husband and a few of his friends were hacking the yard to bits I thought I'd whip up some lunch. I BBQ'd for the first time ever in my whole life and discovered I make a very good burger. Yayee me!

Hi there! Thanks for coming back for part two of my mini makeover series! Yesterday I shared a simple handmade touch to a store-bought dress and today I'm sharing a tutorial on how to make zipper pulls for a store-bought bag!

I got this bag at Target for around $30.

I love it. It's sturdy, cute, and holds a ton! And there are a bunch of pockets which is my favorite. I have made myself a lot of purses and bags and totes, but have yet to make a cross-body bag of this nature. Maybe someday, but until then I'll stick to adding a handmade accent to a super functional bag.

This is a crazy simple tutorial and would be a great beginner project or scrap buster for you veterans. Here we go!

You'll need:

existing zipper pulls as a guide

fabric & coordinating thread

basic sewing tools

fray check

Remove existing zipper pulls from bag and measure the length so you know how long to cut your fabric strips.

Cut your fabric strips 2 inches x the length of the current pulls. I made mine a little wider than the originals because I wanted them to stand out more.

Press the strip in half length wise then press the two long edges into the middle.

Press flat. Repeat for second strip.

Top-stitch down each edge with coordinating thread. I used an 1/8" top-stitch here. Repeat for second strip.

Trim the edges up nice and neat since things can tend to shift a smidge during sewing. Do this for both strips.

Apply fray check to both trimmed edges of each strip and allow for it to dry. Once the edges are dried, put the new pulls where you took off the old ones!

Just a simple little addition, but I think it adds a bit of character and handmade goodness to what was already a fabulous bag! Enjoy!